Yes, absolutely. That's why I say you just have to present it and play it straight.

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And hey, no one gripes when they show crazy stuff like a biomedical engineer (Sandra Bullock) spacewalking and servicing the Hubble telescope as they did in Gravity. But I guarantee you NASA would no more let that happen than your local hospital would allow a plumber to perform open heart surgery on a patient.

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And you could always invent some excuse for them to be there. They could be worried about Reed and Ben's safety and threaten to expose their plan unless they take the Storms along. Something along those lines.

The changes you're willing to make are interesting to me. Seems like all you need is the rocket to go up, get bombarded, and crash land. Everything else is negotiable.

So how about this: It's a joy ride. Reed owns the ship which he built himself. He's sure it's completely safe. He convinces his best friend and his girl friend and her little brother to join him on the adventure of their lifetimes. But it turns out Reed is wrong. It's not completely safe. They get bombarded by cosmic rays. The ship malfunctions and crash lands. They survive the crash but are forever changed.

This retains the only element that I think is important: Reed is entirely responsible for Ben's affliction. It also sets up a scenario where Reed was a bit full of himself and needed to be humbled. He comes out of the experience a changed man.